English teaching and learning during the Covid crisis: online classes and upskilling teachers

Graeme Harrison explores how English language teachers can help students learn in online classes by combining digital resources with existing skills.

Since many countries have imposed a lockdown on movement, and many schools have subsequently closed their doors, vast numbers of previously tech-shy teachers are having to learn very quickly how to teach using online resources. This might be through delivering lessons using virtual classrooms or providing online self-study material for students, both of which may be new modes of lesson delivery for many.

Since the rise of the internet in the 1990s, English language (EL) teachers have had what might be described as a difficult relationship with technology. Initial teacher education has been slow to embrace digital ways of teaching and learning, meaning that many EL teachers feel that they have been poorly prepared to use technology in their teaching (Clark, 2018). Consequently, many EL teachers have been resistant to the digital wave which has revolutionised other areas of our lives. Understandably, there are a number of worries which teachers have regarding introducing technology into teaching. Three of the most common are:

Technology is isolating – learner interaction is limited, and dissimilar to the kind of ways that they will be required to use language in the real world.

Teachers are being deskilled, and the essence of teaching is being lost.

The rise of technology, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI), will soon mean that teachers are made redundant.

To deal with these one at a time:

Is technology isolating for teachers?

In many situations, technology can actually facilitate interaction. We only need think of how many of us now use our phones and social media such as WhatsApp or Facebook to communicate. This can be equally true of interaction in a virtual learning environment – if managed correctly, opportunities for language use can be optimised and students will have plenty of interaction with each other. And, whether we like it or not, these forms of interaction, mediated through digital channels, now account for a high percentage of interactions in the ‘real world’.

Are EL teachers being deskilled?

EL teaching has long since stopped being a static discipline, in which teachers are primarily conveyors of declarative knowledge, i.e. facts or information. Nowadays, English teachers are better conceptualised as facilitators of learning who provide learning opportunities for their students, and give feedback to support improvement. The essence of teaching is not therefore something fixed but rather dynamic, adapting to the context and situation in which each teacher finds themselves. The facilitation of learning through technology is a highly skilled endeavour, and in many contexts can offer a really useful support to the classroom, providing students with the chance to learn in new and interesting ways.

The impact of artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is a 21st century spectre which haunts many professions. However, a study into which jobs are likely to be replaced by AI in the future (Frey & Osborne, 2013) found that the chances of the profession of school teacher disappearing was around 0.007, i.e. very low indeed, especially when compared with jobs such as Library Assistants (0.95), Real Estate Brokers (0.97) and Telemarketers (0.99).

This is because teaching is a complex job, requiring a range of skills, such as subject knowledge, classroom management, motivational skills, delivering feedback, differentiating learning, problem solving, emotional intelligence, counselling, etc. – the list is almost endless.

This contrasts with the current state of AI, which can be described as ‘domain specific’, i.e. highly skilled but in one particular area, e.g. playing chess, driving a car, recognising human faces or speech. The ‘domain general’ skills which a teacher possesses, and the complex interaction between those, is not going to be matched by machines anytime soon.

How Cambridge English is helping

Part of the reason that EL teaching has been slow to adopt new ways of teaching through technology has been because in many contexts, schools lack motivation and/or resources to implement tech solutions in and around the classroom, and therefore, the demand for skilled digital teachers has been weak. That is clearly changing, fuelled by the need of our education systems to keep students learning through these challenging times.

There is therefore a clear and immediate necessity for professional development in teaching through technology for many teachers around the world, and Cambridge English is trying to support this need through a number of initiatives:

Firstly, a free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) - Teaching English Online - has been launched to help teachers acquire the skills needed to teach online. The first iteration of the course attracted over 50,000 participants.

Next, a series of webinars has begun to help teachers who are working virtually. These include titles such as ‘Resilience: teaching in tough times’ and ‘Managing interaction and feedback in the virtual classroom’. See Webinars for teachers page for more details and to sign up.

We have also produced a special web page called Supporting Every Teacher which brings together a series of useful teaching resources such as lesson plans, online activities, and our flagship Write & Improve resource, which allows students to get immediate feedback on their writing through our innovative AI algorithm.

Finally, for those of you involved in preparing students for the A2 Key for Schools exam, Exam Lift is a new free app available from the Google Play and Apple Stores which provides engaging and motivating practice material for students to self-study.

We are also continuing to provide our services to ministries of education during this time. A collection of materials, including those mentioned above, from us and our sister organisation the Cambridge University Press are available. Visit Supporting ministries of education during the COVID-19 pandemic for more details.

We appreciate that these are difficult times, but hope that this training and these resources can help in a small way to support teachers who are delivering virtual classes or producing online resources, perhaps for the first time. It is said that every cloud has a silver lining, and perhaps when this is all over, we will see online learning, with the pedagogical advantages it offers, becoming a more integral part of teaching around the world.

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